In the conventional bill discriminating apparatus, a bill inserted through a slot is checked with respect to the configuration, photographic density, color, design, existence of magnetism, etc. during conveyance, and when it is identified as a true bill, a true bill signal is output, a vending machine or the like is operated and the bill is delivered to a bill storing device for storage therein.
Whenever a bill is inserted and housed in this way, the bill is subsequently placed on the stacked bills in the bill storing device which are stored in a neat stack.
When the bill inserted by a user for the purpose of a purchase is to be returned, one bill is extracted from among the stored bills and is sent out to the slot.
If a return lever is pushed down after five bills are inserted, it is necessary to safely return five bills one by one. The conventional apparatus, however, has a problem in reliability of securely returning one bill at a time and, depending upon the state of bills or the like, sometimes no bills, or sometimes two or three bills overlaid on each other are returned.